Increasing pain on the forecourt

Nelson, as we all well know, is one of the best places to be, on Earth if not beyond. And it's no great revelation either that good things can carry big price tags, said the Nelson Mail in an editorial on Saturday.

Along with sunshine wages, higher transport and travel costs and community facilities that compare less than favourably with some other centres, the high cost of fuel in far-flung parts of the region is another debit on the ledger. Looked at pragmatically, the difference between $1.99 and $2 a litre petrol is, well, minimal adding less than $1 to the cost of filling even a large fuel tank. But symbolically, it's a biggie. We put a high value on numbers ending in a zero 10th anniversaries are considered more important than the 11th, and however considerable an achievement reaching 99 runs in cricket or that many years of age might be, the real measure is making it to three figures, even if the likes of Mollie Miller of Richmond, who turned 100 this week, try hard to downplay it.

News, then, that petrol has topped the $2 litre mark, at one garage anyway in the region, is a further reminder that the days of cheap fuel are over at least until technology solves the soaring demand for and dwindling supply of fossil fuels. Admittedly, the milestone has been reached at a small rural garage at the end of the South Island's petrol supply line Collingwood and it is only for the less used 95-octane petrol, now $2.02.4 a litre, against $1.95.7 for 91-octane supplies. But it is an unwelcome harbinger of things to come. Where Miller's Garage has gone, the rest of the industry will no doubt follow, sooner rather than later as long as oil industry rapaciousness is allowed to continue unchecked.

It is worth repeating that the Government siphons off more than a quarter of the pump price in taxes and levies far more than petrol retailers' profits and that it has the temerity to charge GST on the full amount a tax on a tax, as it were. The ever-earnest Green brigade will also be noting, perhaps with some glee, that many of the good folk on the far side of the marble mountain are finding various ways to cut back on fuel consumption acquiring smaller vehicles, driving less; saving the planet by the litre, while lessening the load on individual wallets.

By that reckoning, Green economists are sure to be counting the days until the rest of the country catches up with Collingwood. Though peak oil concerns might well stimulate the Rex Nowlands among us, whose electric Volkswagen Beetle featured in the Nelson Mail this week, going Green carries its own costs. How many people in "developing" nations will starve as a consequence of the increasing pressure for land to grow biofuel crops? How ethical is it to promote "Green" technology that damages the planet in its production, use or eventual disposal? Or to make grand pronouncements about sustainability and carbon-neutrality while exporting coal (and cheap manufacturing) to less planet-conscious nations? What will be the cost to this country's economy of the push to go Green, and how much difference will our efforts, however earnest or feelgood, make to the planet's viability?

Be that as it may, the problem of ever-rising petrol costs can certainly fuel positive lifestyle change. Cycling makes sense for a range of reasons (just be careful out there) and if people are encouraged to think, work and shop local, well and good. The canny might even make a dollar or two on carbon trading; the rest of us, however as always will surely pay.